first of all, file this one under Missouri Is Stupid. i mean, really...how hard is it to count to 26.2? the kansas city marathon (who the heck knew KC had a marathon anyway???) was four tenths of a mile too short. you'd think after paying $150000 to organize the darn thing that they'd count the length correctly. apparently not.

secondly...here's a new defense...maybe i'll use it when i'm a lawyer. it is, i kid you not..."he was too stupid to commit the crime." i can't say anything snarky about that. that's just special. i guess that lawyer hasn't spent enough time on dumbcrooks.com.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

i should be working on my homework right now, but i can't pay attention to it. i have already had two classes today, and i did reading in the middle of them...and then, from 12 to 1, i took a break in the form of going to a public service roundtable. it was actually pretty funny, Bill Dorothy (one of the legal writing profs) had some funny stories to tell about different pro bono cases he took while being a lawyer. i think, even more amusing, was the fact that he spent a lot of time discussing how much hard work trying cases is, and how much he loves not practicing law now--he's on the boards for employment connection and the local aclu, and teaching legal writing...and has sworn off practicing law ever again. how's that for a message to give impressionable young law students?

i have to go upstairs soon...the kelo debate is at 2, and i want to get a good seat in the courtroom for it. it's between the lawyer who represented the homeowners, and a professor here (one of the coauthors of my property book). i read the case last week, and we're required to see the debate for our property class. that case really hacks me off...it's way too much of a stretch to say that allowing things like urban renewal (berman) and breaking up property ownership in a state where 96% of the property is owned by 72 people plus the government (midkiff) means that a so-called blighted city can take away avowedly non-blighted houses and give them to developers in the name of economic development. i don't blame it on the idea that constitutional law is a flawed game of telephone (in other words, i think thomas' dissent in kelo is little more than a semantic game)...i just don't think previous decisions get them all the way to--or anywhere near--this one. anyway, i'm really curious as to how professor mandelker is going to try and stand for the decision.

then, i have to get some pop to bring to professor greenfield's dinner, and go to it. i'm going to be up so late doing work tonight, since i have not finished the torts case, nor have i even had time to start my contracts reading (two cases), nor have i finished reading the packet of materials for the next memo we have to write for legal writing. that packet is a bunch of long, dense cases about wiretapping. i started reading them this morning, and my eyes glazed over.

Monday, September 26, 2005

today was an interesting little day of classes.

torts was pretty uneventful...but the fun sure did start in legal research. i walk in, grab my handouts for the day, and pick up the assignment i had turned in last week. there was a comment on the first page about how well i did on the assignment, but i couldn't quite make out the last two words of it. finally, i figured out what they said: "curve breaker!" i didn't know whether to laugh or scream...i've heard of students calling each other curve breakers, but this is the first time i've ever seen a professor put such a comment on a paper. that was rather bizarre...but maybe that's what i get for taking a legal research course after working for three and a half years in a law library.

then, i was about to leave, and he mentioned an assignment for the next week. i'm flipping through something that vaguely looks like an assignment, but it was something he had started in class. the only page that didn't have answers on it was the last page. the conversation went a little like this:

me: "what's the assignment, this page?" ::shows last page to professor::him: "yeah..." ::in a confused tone of voice::me: "just this page, or the first two pages?"him: "all of it..."me: "but you were doing this in class...and there are all the answers. i'm confused."

he looks at the page--and realises, to his horror, that he had given me his answer key for the homework assignment. he starts frantically flipping through the extra copies of it on the cart, asking the students who were still in the room to check their papers and see if they had copies of the answers as well, or if it was just mine. no one else in there had answers, and none of the copies on the cart did, so it was probably just an anomaly, him misplacing his answer sheet and it landing in my stack. i exchanged the answer sheet for a copy without the answers on it...but i still thought it was rather funny that he handed out the answer sheet.

then...time for contracts. i had commented in legal research today that i hadn't yet been harassed by a professor as the primary person for a case yet, and that it's doomed to happen soon. i get to contracts, and he starts asking the student next to me about Duncan v. Black. when she couldn't answer questions...he started asking me them. pretty soon, he was interrogating me more than he was interrogating her. and...it was less scary than i feared, especially since it was my toughest professor by far. actually, it wasn't scary at all...i knew enough of the answers so i didn't feel stupid, and i was having a boatload of fun parrying with him, answering his questions, and arguing.

anyone in sections B or C will kill me for saying this, but i kinda wish Greenfield called on me more often. that was fun.

alright, it's banned books week...and i stole this one from leah. it's a list of the 100 most banned books...and i've bolded the ones that i've read.

Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin SchwartzDaddy’s Roommate by Michael WillhoiteI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya AngelouThe Chocolate War by Robert CormierThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark TwainOf Mice and Men by John SteinbeckHarry Potter (Series) by J.K. RowlingForever by Judy BlumeBridge to Terabithia by Katherine PatersonAlice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds NaylorHeather Has Two Mommies by Leslea NewmanMy Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher CollierThe Catcher in the Rye by J.D. SalingerThe Giver by Lois LowryIt’s Perfectly Normal by Robie HarrisGoosebumps (Series) by R.L. StineA Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton PeckThe Color Purple by Alice WalkerSex by MadonnaEarth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. AuelThe Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine PatersonA Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’EngleGo Ask Alice by AnonymousFallen Angels by Walter Dean MyersIn the Night Kitchen by Maurice SendakThe Stupids (Series) by Harry AllardThe Witches by Roald DahlThe New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles SilversteinAnastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois LowryThe Goats by Brock ColeKaffir Boy by Mark MathabaneBlubber by Judy BlumeKilling Mr. Griffin by Lois DuncanHalloween ABC by Eve MerriamWe All Fall Down by Robert CormierFinal Exit by Derek HumphryThe Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret AtwoodJulie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (who the heck would ban this one?!)The Bluest Eye by Toni MorrisonWhat’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda MadarasTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper LeeBeloved by Toni MorrisonThe Outsiders by S.E. HintonThe Pigman by Paul ZindelBumps in the Night by Harry AllardDeenie by Judy BlumeFlowers for Algernon by Daniel KeyesAnnie on my Mind by Nancy GardenThe Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis SacharCross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin SchwartzA Light in the Attic by Shel SilversteinBrave New World by Aldous HuxleySleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna ColeCujo by Stephen KingJames and the Giant Peach by Roald DahlThe Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell (am i a bad person for having this one bookmarked on my computer??)Boys and Sex by Wardell PomeroyOrdinary People by Judith GuestAmerican Psycho by Bret Easton EllisWhat’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda MadarasAre You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy BlumeCrazy Lady by Jane ConlyAthletic Shorts by Chris CrutcherFade by Robert CormierGuess What? by Mem FoxThe House of Spirits by Isabel AllendeThe Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline CooneySlaughterhouse-Five by Kurt VonnegutLord of the Flies by William GoldingNative Son by Richard WrightWomen on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy FridayCurses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel CohenJack by A.M. HomesBless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. AnayaWhere Did I Come From? by Peter MayleCarrie by Stephen KingTiger Eyes by Judy BlumeOn My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer (i loved this book! we read this one in middle school back in north carolina...it's actually really shocking how many of these banned books were on the battle of the books lists back there...maybe raleigh wasn't the Most Conservative Place Ever...)Arizona Kid by Ron KoertgeFamily Secrets by Norma KleinMommy Laid An Egg by Babette ColeThe Dead Zone by Stephen KingThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark TwainSong of Solomon by Toni MorrisonAlways Running by Luis RodriguezPrivate Parts by Howard SternWhere’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford (WTF?!?! it's Where's Freaking Waldo!!!)Summer of My German Soldier by Bette GreeneLittle Black Sambo by Helen BannermanPillars of the Earth by Ken FollettRunning Loose by Chris CrutcherSex Education by Jenny DavisThe Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette GreeneGirls and Sex by Wardell PomeroyHow to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas RockwellView from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis RobertsThe Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley SnyderThe Terrorist by Caroline CooneyJump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

alright...so i've only read 24 of these...i better get on it. especially the sex books...those are probably fun... ;) hahaha...

thursday night, i went to a concert with chris. i had not been to a show in way too long...it was my first show since last october when i saw inept at the transmission gallery. this time, it was escape from earth at off broadway. it was a good concert venue...very weird in the sense that you sat down at tables during the shows, but nice in the sense that it had a really comfy feel to it, and that it was a small venue, in the family of bar-with-a-stage-in-the-corner type places.

before the show, it was great...i ran into escape from earth. they had gotten a couple of new members...christopher and paul weren't there anymore, and mike and scotty had joined. i saw andy and chris, the members i knew, chilled out with them for a while...caught up on things...i missed those guys. they're sweethearts.

the concert itself was very strange, before escape from earth came on. escape from earth is a rock band. the first two acts to play were country acts. the first was a local band called the round-ups. they were country, with a bit of fifties rock peppered in there. they were absolutely hilarious. they were clearly nine people (yes, NINE...biggest band i've ever seen) who were having a lot of fun singing amusing stuff. i'm not generally a big country fan, but i'd go see them again. they were awesome...chris and i had a blast during their set.

after them, scott h. biram played. he was...special. he was definitely a country act, but with occasional flashes of metal riffs and screaming thrown in there. he started his act by referencing wesley willis, which amused me a lot...and clued me in to how absolutely weird he was. i don't really think he was quite the good kind of weird...his shtick got old about a quarter of the way through the set. he was funny for a while, and then i just got the feeling that i had to have drank way more than the two beers that i had consumed in order to actually enjoy what was going on. there were a ton of rabid fans in the audience, amused by the entire thing, rocking along to it...but chris and i both got a bit bored with it after a while.

after them, escape from earth finally came on. it was so sad...a lot of the people there were country people, there to see scott biram and maybe the round-ups...i was one of probably three or four people who was actually there to see efe. their show was a blast...they played a lot of their heavier songs, and their new songs (at least live) seem to have a punkier edge that i really enjoy. but, i was sad because there was no one else there to mosh with...i would have gotten up out of my seat in order to jump around and bang my head, but no one else there was into doing that. i missed being at the metro, having a thousand other people around me who knew every word, as opposed to being in this bar in st. louis where maybe one or two other people there knew every word. still, i loved being there, i loved the fact that the music removed me from everyone and everything around me. i loved the fact that they added "one thing or another", my favourite song of theirs, to the setlist just for me. i really enjoyed their punk rock reworking of "without" (the CONSUMMATE cigarette lighter ballad), and can't wait to see how it's received the first time they play it at the metro. i think there will be a lot of confused fans...but it's a welcome change. although they didn't play it thursday night, i think one ballad like that, "beautiful", would be enough for a set.

after the show, we hung around a second so i could chat with them once more, congratulate them, and say goodnight. seeing them just made me so happy...my neck hurt a bit the next day from headbanging, but i didn't care. chris made fun of me for headbanging and acting stupid during their set...he can keep making fun of me for that all he wants, because that's just nicky at a concert. :)

friday was definitely less eventful. i had one class, contracts, which i actually convinced myself to attend. the afternoon and evening were lazy...the only thing i really did was go to happy hour. it was down at alumni house, which was uncomfortably close to the south 40 (the south 40 is the 40 acres south of campus, which is covered in undergrad dorms) and all the squeaking undergrads thronging from their dorms to WILD, the free lil' jon concert on campus. none of them invaded happy hour, though, so that was nice.

yesterday was awesome. the criminal law society had a float trip. i knew some of the people on the trip, i didn't know a lot of the people on the trip (it was mostly 2L's and 3L's). it was a complete blast. we met up at school around 8:30 to drive down there...it was a little over an hour away, down the meramec river, in the middle of nowhere. there's really not much to say other than it was an afternoon full of drunken awesomeness. they drove us upriver on a school bus, gave us our rafts, and then we just spent the rest of the afternoon on our rafts, floating down to where we started. we brought several coolers of beer and other alcoholic libations...and it's pretty amazing how much the eleven of us managed to put away. i'm surprised no one drowned. :) it was just so relaxing...having an entire afternoon to meet some new people, not have to worry about school or anything else, and go on my first float trip since the summer of 2002. i got pretty sunburned, and i was completely out of it the rest of the night with the combination of getting up so early and getting so drunk, but that was no big deal. i feel fine today, the day that i actually have to do work.

i've done some work already today...i've read my case for torts, and one of my two contracts cases. i still have to read the second contracts case, and then type up my legal research assignment that i did on tuesday. i should get everything done at a reaonable hour--hopefully even before chris gets out of trial team practice. i should also get started on work for later this week, but who knows if that's going to happen. i seriously doubt it.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

last night, we had to read a case for torts. granted, it was civil and not criminal. but, it involved a football player...who whacked another football player in the back of the head with his forearm, breaking his neck...and the football player (and his team, the Bengals) argued that it was a risk you take playing football, and that violent contact like that was common and customary.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

i got to school around 8:30, as usual...and i don't actually get to leave until 10pm. today is one of those days where i have a bunch of classes and meetings, each of which are separated by a period of an hour or two...so i don't have long enough between each to go home during any of the breaks, but i spend way too much of my time not actually in class or a meeting. at least i've been using that to my advantage; i have my torts done for tomorrow, and i have about ten of the twenty-five pages i must read for contracts tomorrow taken care of. hopefully i will get that all done while i'm still at school, so i don't have to go home and keep studying.

the longer i'm in law school, the more i realise that i feel like i'm back in high school. in high school, i spent all my free time with my nose in a book. ditto for law school. granted, it was always reading for pleasure in high school because i was awkward and antisocial...but the fact that my nose is always in my books is making me feel awkward and antisocial all over again. this time, though, it's out of a profound sense of necessity and paranoia. if i let myself get behind, the professor is going to make me look like a fool. the professor is going to mark my grade down. i am going to fail the midterm. i am going to fail the final. my law school grades are going to be poor. i am not going to get a good summer job. i am going to slip into academic apathy similar to that i felt in college. i am not going to get a good real job. i am going to be a failure. if i don't do my reading every night, the consequences are real-life consequences.

i don't have the room to be young and stupid anymore. that scares me, it makes me a little sad, but it drives me...i feel so stupid and slow compared to all of these other people, my classmates who don't spend all their time hunched over a book and still manage to not look like morons when the professor calls on them, who still manage to not feel like morons every single day. i feel like i need to make up for being the slow one, the stupid one, the one who can't assimilate the concepts and put them together as quickly or efficiently or well as anyone else in my class.

in short, i can get my work done, have a life, or sleep...and i can pick two of the three. i can't get my work done unless i sleep, so that decision has been made for me. if this mindset makes me a gunner, so be it.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Sunday, September 18, 2005

i'm procrastinating from writing my memo.

this weekend has been nice, so far. friday night, i played poker...ended up down four bucks, which is really no biggie...played for five hours, and that's even less than i spent in dealer tips for won pots. i'll take it. i won a lot of big pots, i lost a lot of big pots...i just had a lot of playable hands. it was strangely fun not to sit and watch most of the night, as usually happens in limit poker. although i was playing more hands than usual, just because i got good ones, i still was playing tighter than anyone at the table. there were so many calling stations...which cut into my profits becasue they would basically call and call and call with any two cards, and no matter how good my cards were, there would way too many times be one of the six or seven or eight people seeing the flop who had something better. grrr.

yesterday rocked...hung out with hilary most of the day. we spent forever chatting over lunch, and then went bowling. that was awesome...i hadn't been bowling in forever. then, we played a game of settlers of catan with chris. i was so amazingly excited to find out that hilary played settlers--i hadn't played the game since i was back in chicago. she had the seafarers expansion, so we played it with that...it was lots of fun, although i still hadn't quite assimilated the workings of the seafaring, so i got my butt absolutely kicked. so good to play that game again, though...

after that, i hung around at home for a while and then went for sushi and ice cream with the boy. :) the sushi was so good last night...i had the best piece of mackerel ever. it was all kinds of yummy.

today, i've done so much nothing. that is bad, as i have a memo due tomorrow. i was just so sluggish all day today. i have my memo outlined out, and my outlines are so detailed that the papers just kind of write themselves...but i write a few lines, and then surf the web...and write a few lines, and then surf the web. i need to do less websurfing and more memo writing, lest i be up until 3 am. we'll see if that happens.

i'd really love not to have a headache anymore. it's been dogging me for a couple hours, and the advil isn't helping. it's really annoying me, and making it harder to write my memo.

Friday, September 16, 2005

i just killed two hours on what's got to be the funniest website i've seen in a long, long time. it's called badbeer.com.

basically, it's exactly what the name makes it out to be--a repository of pictures of and stories about Really Bad Beer. read the thread, "the origins of badbeer.com"...i about died laughing, especially during the first few pages of the thread.

i'm shocked that i hadn't found it before, because it's run by satan165, the lead singer for low profile, a local chicago punk band. it's not linked off the band site though...i found it off of some ghetto wine sites (bumwine.com and ghettowine.com)i was reading thanks to my stumbleupon toolbar.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

so, i think i had my first law school go-crazy moment yesterday.

we were assigned a memo, and the professor basically told us that we have to write it without actually being told how to write it. it's not graded, we just get block points for turning in some sort of draft for the memo, but that just annoyed me on principle. this was our new teacher doing this...our old teacher gave us a really good idea of what we were supposed to do a few weeks ago before our first memo was due.

that precipitated insanity. that led to me thinking about how much work i have to do, how much reading i have to do this week, the fact that i haven't started my outline yet...it all felt like too much. it's the most freaked out i've ever been about work when i've actually been up to date on all the work i had to have done at the time. i don't know what it is.

maybe i'm just overcompensating. i was so apathetic in college...i didn't do any of my work, or any more than was necessary not to fail, my last two years of college. last year i was even more apathetic, because i didn't have a whole lot that i had to care about. i cared about what was fun, coaching mock trial and hanging out with my friends, but that was really it. now, i have to care about school again. i'm making myself care. sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's not. yesterday...i don't know if it wasn't easy to care, or wasn't easy to force myself to go through with it, because it really was feeling like a never-ending gauntlet of work. i'm starting to snap out of it a bit...although not completely, not yet.

alright, so this post made about as little sense as my nervous breakdown yesterday. i guess i'm just having a bad week.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

"Write 20 random facts about yourself then tag the same amount of people as minutes it takes you to write the facts. If you're tagged it's your turn."

1. i skipped fourth grade.

2. i did the costume crew for three years in high school. i joined it because the crew chief said we'd have the closest interaction with the actors...and i had a crush on one of them. it never got me anywhere with him, but it was lots and lots of fun.

3. my biggest regret is quitting piano lessons when i was 9.

4. i love coke classic and hate diet coke, but i far prefer diet pepsi to that awful regular pepsi.

5. law school is making me really boring. most days i just go home after class, study, and watch bad tv.

6. i am not a morning person. this having torts at 9am thing is really killing me.

7. i really miss competing in mock trial...i guess that's not all that random, but with another season starting up, and the law school season starting up, it's making me profoundly sad that i can't compete this year.

8. i love wearing men's sport coats, although i'm sad my favourite one has a hole in it.

9. the highest i've ever bowled is a 181.

10. i want to be a litigator. i need to find a job this summer that will take me somewhere towards that goal.

11. i feel strange actually having a goal that i honestly want to work towards...i was getting so used to apathy. apathy was like a comfy pillow, and i'm mostly glad, although a little sad, that i've had to throw it by the wayside.

12. i have 129 people on my AIM buddy list, most of whom i haven't talked to in a really long time.

13. i zone out more easily than anyone i know. this is a bad thing when i'm trying to sit through a class.

14. my favourite food is giordano's stuffed cheese pizza. it makes me sad that i can't get that whenever i want now that i'm in st. louis.

17. i'd love to be amy lee, except for the dating shaun morgan part. shaun morgan is an awesome singer, but he's an ugly, ugly man.

18. i'm a blog junkie...but i hate subject matter blogs, especially pretentious news blogs. but, a fun, newsy personal blog...gets me hooked every time. i have several people i've never met in real life whose blogs i read regularly, even several people i've never actually talked to.

19. this weekend, my friend said that everyone loves me because everyone wonders if they're being a little too weird...but then they meet me and realise that they're nowhere near as werid as i am.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

right below the sudoku in this morning's st. louis post-dispatch, there was a small box with a few ads from the post-dispatch personals. below it, there's a disclaimer. the first sentence of the disclaimer reads:

"Personals are for adults 18 or over seeking monogamous relationships."

that really bugs me. i mean, what if you want to post a personal ad to find someone when you're in a consentingly open relationship, or to join some other arrangement of polyamory. the post-dispatch personals are probably a little too mainstream to have much luck in that effect (you'd probably be better off in the riverfront times, or craig's list, or some internet site for nontraditional relationships...), but the fact that they have the provision there just annoys me on principle. it's the newspaper's right to have that provision, and keep out ads that don't appear to be seeking monogamous relationships, but i think it's, on principle, unfair to relationship structures that are not monogamous by the choice of the involved parties.

i assume they are referring to what often happens in personals...spouses looking to cheat on their spouses by posting personal ads. yes...if your spouse is under the impression that you are in a monogamous relationship, then posting personals to look for another partner is a very sleazy thing to do, it's something you shouldn't do. but, that provision is not going to prevent a spouse from representing himself or herself as single, and there's no way the post-dispatch is going to know that it's a spouse looking to hoodwink their spouse.

in short, i think having that verbal proscription against nonmonagamous relationships is only going to serve to keep away and offend people who are in nonmonogamous relationships by choice and may be looking for another partner, and will not deter the sneaking liars who are actually likely to cause harm and heartbreak by the very nature of the arrangement they are looking for.

Monday, September 12, 2005

thanks to penn central transportation co. v. city of new york, i am having an identity crisis.

i always thought i believed in historic landmark ordinances...but the arguments in favour of them in that case just rang completely hollow to me. the supreme court just...didn't even question the idea that such ordinances fostered civic pride and tourism and business, and strengthened the economy of the city, and were useful for the education, pleasure and welfare of the citizens. yes, i know, i'm sure that every single new yorker who reads this will probably want to beat me with a lead pipe for even insinuating that i may be against the court decision that saved grand central station. i don't know if i'm per se against it or for it...but especially, in the middle of a city, where space is at such a premium, i don't know if it's such a good idea to trade off some sort of vague sense of public good that flows from having these "landmarks" or from having some "dramatic view", when the space could be used for more activity. i'm bothered that the majority didn't even question the city's rationale for having the historic landmark ordinances.

maybe it's just because i'm a brute...i'm not a history buff, i generally don't give a crap about a nice view. i like useful things, and this decision just kind of goes against my preference for useful things.

i don't know where in particular this rant is going. i think i'm just posting this because my reactions to this case are giving me a feeling that i'm a Bad Liberal. i don't have an answer, i'm just bothered.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

i remember...i was in chicago for orientation leader training...the rest of the o-aides were supposed to get there that day. i didn't have a tv in my room and i didn't check news sites...so i cranked up some onesidezero and rocked out when i was getting ready for training, completely oblivious. i go to pierce to eat. i get my food, hang out...and about ten minutes later, someone sits down and tells us someone flew a plane into the WTC. i assumed it was a small plane, some dinky little cessna flown by some idiot, some drunk guy, someone who lost control. the towers hadn't fallen yet, but they assure me it was worse than that.

we didn't go straight to training. we went to the reg, went to the computers. we tried to get on CNN, NYT, the trib...we couldn't actually log onto any of the sites for a while, they were so slammed. finally we got onto CNN; by then the towers had fallen.

it was just...weird. i didn't know what to think about it then, and i still don't know what to think about it now. i remember afterwards, the fallout, new york city pulling together, i allowed myself to be optimistic about where the country would go after it. but, then, "god bless america." but, then, let's bomb afghanistan, bomb iraq, bomb the whole middle east. you're either with us or you're against us. i still don't know what to think about the actual incident, but the fallout, and the people in power who had so much control about what the fallout was going to be...that still makes me mad and sad and disappointed.

Friday, September 09, 2005

thank goodness it's friday.

i've had so few thoughts of substance this week, and therefore i've made no posts of real substance in a few days. i've been doing a lot of reading, a lot of work...but that's really about it. i did go out last night, which was nice. i got my homework done, and then a bunch of us went out for some drinks at Llywellyn's. it was nice to just go out and hang out with people...i think law school is making me antisocial. i go to school, i go to class, i have my classes, i get on the shuttle, i go home, and i do my work. i think everyone, or darn near everyone, studies at the library, or somewhere on campus. i generally can't do that...a few hours here or there if i'm waiting for the boy to get out of class, maybe, but i just feel a lot more comfortable studying at home. i like sitting on the couch and reading.

today should be an awesome day if i survive until 12:30 or so, though. i'm in torts now...i've got writing, contracts, and a most-likely-pointless meeting with the dean of student services (basically, them checking on all the 1L's to make sure we're not about to die, and they're not doing anything overtly to make our lives suck...). then i'm going home, napping or watching bad TV for a couple hours ('cause i'm actually caught up to monday on my work...YAYYYYYY!!!!!! me now responsble is!!!!!), and going back to school for happy hour at 4. i heart happy hour...school-sponsored free beer can't be wrong. after happy hour, i'll probably go home, make up some dinner, and chill for a few hours.

then, one of my best friends is coming into town. he gets into the airport a little before 11pm. i'll meet him there, and then we're going to hit the delmar loop and do what we do best: drink some beer. that's going to be so much fun, i haven't seen him since he moved to madison back in june. tomomrrow we're going to the cardinals game, and hopefully the budweiser brewery as well.

tomorrow my boyfriend also has his mock trial tryout. hopefully he'll do really well, because i want him to make trial team. and, hopefully, i'll get to see his tryout. that would be fun.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

i should be reading property. but, i really, really don't want to...so i'm watching world poker tour and surfing the web.

this site is way too amusing. it's a calculator of how many caffeinated drinks it would take to kill you...you select the drink and your weight, and it tells you how much you need to drink to make you die. it's morbid, it's stupid, it's completely awesome.

other than that...i'm just feeling way too blahhhh to have a coherent thought.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

today hasn't been bad, just long.

i caught up on property reading...only to now have reading due for thursday. darn...at least i showed up having finished all my work. although, it took all my powers to not start laughing hysterically. we've been reading lots of cases about coke...we discussed one in contracts today, and another one in property. granted, the coke they're talking about isn't cocaine, but rather the stuff made from coal that is needed to smelt metal.

but, think about it. one case was about a company contracting for nine truckloads of coke to come in every day, at the price of just about a buck a ton. [imagine how much crack you could make with that, and how much it would sell for!] the other case was for someone asking for an injunction for a coke plant to stop functioning because the coke smoke was a nuisance.

truckloads of coke? coke smoke? sounds like a day worthy of drug dealer alley.

i was trying to force myself to stop laughing, becuase it was making me laugh so much. i was cracking up in the front of property class, i bet my prof thinks i'm nuts or something. who knew processed coal could be so hilarious??

other than that, today was pretty uneventful. i'm kind of annoyed...i had a meeting with my writing prof at noon today until 12:30 to discuss my memo. the PAD meeting was supposed to be from 12 to 1. i went to the room after my writing memo meeting, and there was no one in there, no sign of a meeting. that confused me. i emailed the person in charge, a 2L who i know...i wonder what happened.

i didn't eat a real meal today, so i was kind of dizzy when i got home. i had some crackers a few hours ago, when i got home from class, but i should probably make some substantive dinner today. dinner would be good.

Monday, September 05, 2005

i'm only about half done with my memo that's due tomorrow. it's a short memo, and i'll probably be done with it soon after dinner, but i still have property to read. my goal was to do all my reading yesterday...i finished contracts and torts, and started property, but i just couldn't make myself get through it. i then got tired really, really early...i must have passed out soon after 10pm last night.

ughhh...there's no real reason for this post other than to complain about how much work i have to do. i have to get so much done before friday...i.e., everything that's due by monday.

i keep trying to remind myself how much barcoding books and slinging spaghetti really sucked.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

it's an online "radio station", but basically you tell it (by clicking on stuff, plugging in through your itunes, or both) what you like, and it will come up with music that other people who listen to what you listen to also like. it's awesome.

i found it because my stumble upon toolbar brought it to me. stumble upon is almost as cool as last.fm. it's a mozilla firefox plugin that is going to make me flunk out of school. one of my classmates told me about it when i was out on thursday night...basically you tell it what you're interested in, and then by clicking the "stumble upon" button on your mozilla toolbar, it brings you to random websites that are somehow linked to subjects you like. it's brought me to a few sites that i already know and love, but mostly sites that i've never heard of before. and, some of them are just inspired. i can sit at my computer for hours, just clicking on that little button...and i sure have.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

at dinner tonight, one moment we were laughing that ron jeremy was coming to town and doing a stand up act.

next moment, some fellow law students told us that justice rehnquist died today.

that took me aback. i mean, i knew he was going to die at some point, and some point rather soon. he was old, he was sick, he wasn't in such great shape. but, still, the idea that it might happen is still not the same as the fact of it happening.

this gives bush the chance to appoint another justice. this reinforces why election day last year was such a depressing one for me, and all of the liberals i know. this means a new chief justice...probably scalia. i know he still only gets one vote, but i don't like the symbolism of it...it's not logical, but it's a picture of the court being pulled further to the right.

i'm praying nothing happens to stevens. i know he's old...i don't think he's sick. i hope he makes it through the rest of bush's term, him and the rest of the liberal contingent on the court. in a practical sense, i'm less shaken that it's rehnquist being replaced than one of the liberals being replaced...but can you imagine what a swing this would have been in the court if it had been kerry elected last november?

today is the laziest day ever. i woke up around 9:30, lied around, went back to my place, lied around some more, browsed the web, took a nap, watched some poker, and now i'm browsing the web some more. as soon as the kansas football game is over (the boy is listening to it on the internet, of course...), we're possibly going to venture off of westwood drive over to the pizza haus to get some food.

i love being lazy...it's the laziest i've been since law school started two weeks ago. tomorrow i need to make myself do some work, because i have so much due tuesday. i have two cases for contracts, two cases for property, and...i don't know how many, but as always, a large amount of cases due for property. i also have a memo due tuesday for legal writing. i also realised that i need to spend lots of quality time with my law books this week, given that e-6 is coming to town on friday night. i know i have a research assignment due a week from monday, and i'm sure i'll have all sorts of reading due then too. i don't think i have a contracts makeup class that day, though, which will make life a little easier...and mean i'll be off of class at 11am that day. (all the better to go home and pass out, get that sleep i probably won't be getting over that weekend.)

anyway...i haven't posted the answers yet to my guess-the-song one. jess got no. 13, but no one else got any of the other ones...sad sad sad. :(

1. "we won't cry for yesterday or tomorrow...we will go on living for today"--"speed of light" by shades apart2. "in the early morning cut her down...the pill she needs your love...forget your mother and your father...you'll fall apart inside"--"graze" by live3. "it doesn't matter what i can dream away"--"stereo world" by feeder4. "my open eyes see everything...and you see nothing...and don't forget it"--"stay and drown" by finger eleven5. "[title] [title] things have happened...goodness brings a chain reaction...liberate me from inaction"--"stranger" by lili haydn6. "the more you give yourself away...the more it burns and breaks away"--"radiation" by feeder7. "what flesh will do to you...it'll do to me too"--"first time" by finger eleven8. "true love behind a wall...where men and angels fall..."--"frozen" by celldweller9. "whatever they called you...it's just a name...just a name"--"turn my head" by live10. "i always felt like there was something in deep below...what i thought was nothing but a dismal day...but the day got away"--"thicker" by the blank theory11. "i'll always let you down...yeah but i don't care...you'll never understand...i wasted all the time in the world in your eyes"--"father's eyes" by the blank theory12. "i see the way your face has changed...we're no good for each other"--"london" by third eye blind13. "if shame had a face i think it would kind of look like mine"--"sick cycle carousel" by lifehouse14. "i am i am i am i am so scared...i am i am i am i am prepared...i don't even know you anymore..."--"answer" by star crash speedway (no, mrvoid and brokenbubble, it's NOT jessie spano from saved by the bell!!!)15. "talked to the city that knows me by name and all the bad things that i do"--"every monday" by the marvelous 316. "getting hurt is no way to live"--"when you cry" by krim17. "there's a lot i could say...there's a lot i could do...if i had it my way...but i don't and you do"--"lemonade" by the marvelous 318. "there's someone who understands you more than i do"--"god of wine" by third eye blind19. "in struggle lies evolution"--"faithful one" by lili haydn20. "world gone mad outside my window...try to buy a higher life...i don't need another thing...i will go on dreaming if you stay with me"--"chasing daydreams" by shades apart

i think i'm going to do the music meme again sometime in a while, a rather long while, once i've racked up more songs. i did that a few days ago when i had 200 songs or so on my computer...after my CD ripping binge on wednesday, and then a few songs i've downloaded over the last couple days (really, mainly some wesley willis stuff on alternative tentacles that i didn't have yet, and then an album full of random covers of wesley willis songs (loved like a milkshake!), i'm now up to 561 songs. still puny, but it's a start.

Friday, September 02, 2005

i found this article and started reading it in torts class. i had to stop reading it after about a paragraph because i was laughing so hard at just the title and the first paragraph...and i didn't want to make it that obvious that i was surfing the web in class. anyway...it's freaking hilarious. it's the funniest thing the onion has done in a while--yes, even funnier than the scalia thing i linked to a few days ago.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

well, i ran for SBA rep this week. i didn't get elected...it was a little disappointing, but i'm not crushed or anything. although, given what i found out an hour or so after i found out i wasn't elected, i'm almost glad i wasn't. i was talking to the professor in charge of the mock trial team, and our conversation meandered over to the subject of ATLA (american trial lawyers' association.) apparently, everyone who ran it last year has graduated, there's basically no chapter at WU anymore. (that explains my complete inability to find their table at the activities fair two weeks ago.) there should be some people (whoever they may be...) on the trial team joining the chapter, as there are every year...but since the trial team usually takes up so much time, and there's a couple week lag between now and when the trial team will actually be put together, there needs to be someone in charge of getting the chapter on its feet. looks like that person is going to be me. the professor is going to give my get me in touch with the person from ATLA who is responsible for disseminating information and getting law school chapters set up, and we'll see where it goes from there. hopefully by the time the trial team has been selected--at which time there will be a need for witnesses like me--i'll get this ATLA thing at least somewhat set up.

i'm such a twit(ter)...

wish i would have known...

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